Youth permeates Red Raider squad

For the second time in three years, Texas Tech basketball coach James Dickey welcomed a group of new players (6) as big as his returning crop when the 2000-2001 season began last week.

But unlike the 1998-99 campaign, when all but one of those newcomers was a freshman, Dickey's new charges this fall are all first-year college students.

So far, Dickey is enthusiastic about his re-tooled club, which opens the season Nov. 22 against Prairie View A&M at United Spirit Arena.

Coming off a 12-16 season the program's third losing season in a row the Red Raiders have added five freshmen and a junior college transfer to a crop of six returning players.

"This is always an exciting time of year when you get back on the floor with a new team," Dickey said Thursday during media day. "When you struggle as much as we have the last few years, it's especially encouraging to see that the players have the kind of enthusiasm that they've shown so far."

Dickey, who is in his 10th season as the Tech head coach, said that recruiting and rehab were the keys to his team's fortunes this season. Besides the influx of new talent, four Raiders - Cliff Owens, Andy Ellis, Jayson Mitchell and Moses Malone Jr. - are looking to bounce back from injuries that plagued them last season.

Owens missed all of last year after reconstructive ankle surgery before last season. Ellis went down midway through the season with a dislocated shoulder. Mitchell played with a nagging heel injury all of last season. And Malone never fully recovered from a stress fracture in his foot last fall.

"The big question marks for us are how our guys come back from the injuries we had last year," Dickey said. "We have to see what kind of durability those guys are going to have."

Ellis will miss the next 5-6 weeks with a broken bone in his wrist, but if he returns healthy he has All-Conference potential. The 6-foot-11 Lamesa product was averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds last season before his season ended. Owens was Tech's leading rebounder for two seasons from 1997-99, averaging 7 caroms a contest as a sophomore and 7.7 as a junior.